This constituency statement was led and delivered by NCD Alliance, with contributions from the World Heart Federation, under agenda item 20.1 – Reform of the Global Health Architecture and the UN80 Initiative – at the Seventy-Ninth World Health Assembly.
Distinguished delegates,
We welcome the recognition of noncommunicable diseases and mental health within WHO’s proposal on global health architecture reform, acknowledging shifting disease burdens and demographics and the need for integrated, people-centred health systems.
We are, however, concerned that the lack of representation of civil society and people with lived experience on the Joint Task Force undermines the legitimacy of the process.
We urge Member States to:
- Ensure that NCDs and mental health interests are represented within the governance structures and outcomes of the reform process to balance their omission from existing global health initiatives.
- Include at least two civil society and affected community representatives on the Joint Task Force, and establish a stakeholder group for people living with health conditions including persons with disabilities to ensure legitimacy, transparency, and implementation of the reform process.
- Uphold the principles of the Lusaka Agenda by aligning financing with health needs and nationally led priorities, including NCD and mental health services.
- Ensure the reform process considers the determinants of health and engages institutions outside the health sector that contribute to health.
- Introduce safeguards and conflict-of-interest mechanisms to protect the GHA reform process from influence by health-harming industries.
- Establish clear mechanisms to monitor implementation of GHA reform outcomes, and resource inclusive participation and risk mitigation measures throughout phases of the process.
NCD Alliance is part of the HEAR-CSO consortium and calls for its inclusion in the list of initiatives to be engaged in this process
This statement is coordinated by:
- The NCD Alliance
And supported by:
- International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care
- Women in Global Health
- Sightsavers
- International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness
- International Diabetes Federation
- Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH)
- World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRFI)
- International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO)
- FDI World Dental Federation
- World Heart Federation
- Vital Strategies
- Multiple Sclerosis International Federation,
- Union for International Cancer Control
